LAVAL, Que. — A minor fraudster was arrested by the Laval police after he allegedly managed to convince several victims, often elderly, to give him their debit card and their personal identification number (PIN). The cards were then used to commit fraud.
The Laval Police Service (SPL) indicates that it has identified around thirty cases that have occurred since March and believes that the suspect could have caused other victims in the Montreal region.
In the scheme, a suspect would call victims at their homes and pretend to be a representative of a financial institution. He would then tell his targets that their credit card had been defrauded.
“After gaining their trust, he would ask them to place their cards in an envelope and write the personal identification number (PIN) on the back. He subsequently told them that a courier would pick up their cards at their residence. Once recovered, they were used to commit fraud at bank counters as well as in businesses,” explains the SPL.
The fictitious names “Simon Cloutier” and “Simon Blais” would have been used in particular to identify the courier who was to travel to the victims.
The SPL also points out that it has discovered a new element that has alerted its investigators: “In some cases, the courier allegedly called the victims back so that they could speak directly with a real representative of their financial institution in order to have their card that had been blocked due to suspicion of fraud reactivated. All of this was allegedly done during a conference call with several people.”
The Laval police force mentions that it is possible that the suspect could have been active and have caused other victims in the Greater Montreal region.
He recalls that it is imperative to never give personal information to a stranger, in particular bank or credit card numbers, and reiterates that no financial or government institution communicates by email, telephone or text message to request personal data.
